Resting on top of a tall, narrow pole, they flank his podium during speeches in the White House’s stately parlors. They stood next to him on the floor of a manufacturing plant in Indiana as he pitched his economic stimulus plan. They traveled to the Department of Transportation this week and were in the Capitol Rotunda last month when he paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln in six-minute prepared remarks.Click to view image: '9e5dafdb1747-6a00d8341d896453ef010534a8130c970b800wi.jpg'
Obama’s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual — not only because he is famous for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently and at so many events, large and small.

After the teleprompter malfunctioned a few times last summer and Obama delivered some less-than-soaring speeches, reports surfaced that he was training to wean himself off of the device while on vacation in Hawaii. But no such luck.

His use of the teleprompter makes work tricky for the television crews and photographers trying to capture an image of the president announcing a new Cabinet secretary or housing plan without a pane of glass blocking his face. And it is a startling sight to see such sleek, modern technology set against the mahogany doors and Bohemian crystal chandeliers in the East Room or the marble columns of the Grand Foyer.

“It’s just something presidents haven’t done,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, a presidential historian who has held court in the White House since December 1975. “It’s jarring to the eye. In a way, it stands in the middle between the audience and the president because his eye is on the teleprompter.” Click to view image: 'c262d4e26ef0-610x.jpg'

Just how much of a crutch the teleprompter has become for Obama was on sharp display during his latest commerce secretary announcement. The president spoke from a teleprompter in the ornate Indian Treaty Room for a few minutes. Then Gov. Gary Locke stepped to the podium and pulled out a piece of paper for reference.

The president’s teleprompter also elicited some uncomfortable laughter after he announced Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his choice for Health and Human Services secretary. “Kathy,” Obama said, turning the podium over to Sebelius, who waited at the microphone for an awkward few seconds while the teleprompters were lowered to the floor and the television cameras rolled.

Obama has relied on a teleprompter through even the shortest announcements and when repeating the same lines on his economic stimulus plan that he's been saying for months — whereas past presidents have mostly worked off of notes on the podium except during major speeches, such as the State of the Union.

Ari Fleischer, a former spokesman for George W. Bush, said while it’s entirely a matter of personal style, using a teleprompter at these smaller events has its drawbacks.

“It removes you from the audience in the room,” Fleischer said. When speaking from notes, Fleischer said, the president can pick up his head and make eye contact with those in the audience, as opposed to focusing on the teleprompter to his left and right.

Bush, Fleischer added, “would use the teleprompter for his major big events, but when he would travel around the country or do events, he would almost always work off of large index cards.”

Obama has never tried to hide his use of a teleprompter. It was a mainstay during the final months of his campaign. He brought it to county fairs and campaign rallies alike — and once had it set up in the ring at a rodeo.

In a break from his routine, Obama did not use a teleprompter during his pre-Inauguration speech at a factory in Bedford Heights, Ohio — and his delivery seemed to suffer. He paused too long at parts. He accentuated the wrong words. And overall he sounded hesitant and halting as he spoke from the prepared remarks on the podium.

As president, the stakes in what he says are higher. Governing is not campaigning, and, as a former first-term senator, Obama has not held a previous elected position where his words carried even close to this level of influence.

“In this kind of environment, you don’t want to make mistakes — on the economy you’re talking about doing things that affect the markets,” Kumar said.

But be it extra precaution, style or a mental crutch, Obama has shown in the past that he needs the teleprompter. And while he still has his prepared remarks placed on the podium in a leather folder, the White House has shown no sign of trying to wean him off of it.

Before Obama entered a room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Wednesday to announce his crackdown on defense contracts, a CNN reporter asked an Obama aide if the teleprompter could be moved further away from the podium or lowered. The answer was an unequivocal ‘no.’

“He uses them to death,” a television crewmember who also covered the White House under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush said of the teleprompter. “The problem is, he never looks at you. He’s looking left, right, left, right — not at the camera. It’s almost like he’s not making eye contact with the American people.”

Wednesday’s event posed another scenario photographers and television crews have to work around. Obama had five others join him at the announcement, including Sen. John McCain. The takeaway shot was of Obama and McCain. But the teleprompter on Obama’s left was almost directly in front of McCain.

“You couldn’t get a good angle on him with McCain,” said a White House photographer who also covered Bush. “So if there’s someone else important in the frame, it’s hard to get a shot without the teleprompter.”

sauerkraut

Posted Mar-5-2009 By

MaxBlacks

It is true that he uses teleprompters more than any other president but if one relies on teleprompters or note cards what difference does it make? He is said to write most of his material. Whatever works

Posted Mar-5-2009 By

atman100

I guess I'm a little confused.. Is this the first time a president has used a prompter?

Is this thread a joke? Seriously guys.... Is this really important???? Is the subject of Obama using a prompter more important to you than our economy? Is this more important than the fact that we are about to lose our National Sovereignity?

This is so typical. People are just totally clueless about the real issues we are facing.

Posted Mar-5-2009 By

Nurb

"A recent Zogby/Williams Identity Poll reflected that. It found that 57% of undecided voters would rather have a beer with Bush than Kerry. (In Bush's case, it would be a nonalcoholic beer.)

While both were raised with silver spoons in their mouths and both went to Yale, Bush comes off as less pretentious and more down to earth. Kerry sounds like he is lecturing people rather than holding a conversation with them.

"Snob" is a word often used by people whMore..en asked how Kerry strikes them. "Nice guy" is the way many express their response to Bush.

Of course, detractors of Bush often describe him as "dumb" and "arrogant." And supporters of Kerry like to promote him as "smart" and "intelligent."

But for the most part, Bush is seen as the friendly neighbor next door. A new Pew Research Center Poll asked swing voters who comes off more as a "real person," Bush or Kerry? Bush won, 56% to 38%."
(USA Today, Sep.17, 2004)
http://tinyurl.com/yrbg84

***

it's self-evident that many americans vote with their hearts and not their brainsLess..

Posted Mar-5-2009 By

lasrever

of course he did....... he never spoke without a teleprompter, he just couldn't read very well under pressure.....one of the only presidents ive ever seen give a speech without notes or a teleprompter was Clinton.

Posted Mar-5-2009 By

thumbly

Posted Mar-5-2009 By

morelman2

It's funny to think you might actually be showing your intellectual prowess in this comment.

I wonder what your mother or father did to you to instill such a complex that you actually think your pathetic, tiny and irrelevant life beyond the 130 people you know personally in this world is actually on par with that of just 1 of 44 men to hold the position of POTUS.

Difference between you and me is im under no illusions of my value and range in this world, you obviously are with comments like thMore..e one above. I thoroughly enjoy running into one day just to see what kind of weasel you are.

I have an idea, get a life and take some interest in your own world and country, become a leader of something...post it here and lets see just how accomplished of a human being you really are. My guess is your not apart of any team, lead nothing and are much happier being a loner, not all bad things but hardly the human composition that leads to the POTUS. Your a very meaningless person to a man like Bush, you've risen to no such accomplishment that would even make him hear your whisper, go do something noteworthy then comeback and pass judgment on intellect.Less..